A clear national view of 50 municipalities across all nine provinces

The Local Government Report Card 2026 shows how 50 South African municipalities are performing. It includes all eight metropolitan municipalities and a selected sample of 42 local municipalities across all nine provinces. It is not a census of every municipality. Each municipality receives a score out of 100, based on five areas: services and infrastructure, financial management, governance, integrity and transparency, and constitutional inclusion. The score sets the grade, while the direction of travel – improving, stable or deteriorating – is shown separately.

This matters because local government shapes daily life. It is often the first visible part of government in a person’s daily life, at home or work. Residents experience it through tap water, refuse collection, roads, working streetlights, understandable accounts and local decisions. Sections 152 and 153 of the Constitution require municipalities to provide democratic and accountable government, deliver services sustainably, support development and respond to basic needs. When a municipality works well, these promises become real. When it fails, the effects enter homes, businesses and communities quickly.

The results show a deeply uneven system. The average score is 57.4 and the median is 55.5. Swartland leads with 90.0, while Maluti-a-Phofung records 24.0. Nineteen municipalities fall in the C grade band, meaning that strengths exist alongside serious risks. Eleven are in D and five receive an F. These numbers are more than marks on a page. They show that people living under the same Constitution can receive very different levels of service, financial care and public accountability.

The stronger municipalities show a clear pattern. They usually have stable professional leadership, reliable billing, funded budgets, maintained assets and oversight structures that act when problems are found. These strengths support one another. Revenue funds maintenance; maintenance protects services; reliable services build public trust; and trust can improve payment. In weaker municipalities, the pattern runs backwards. Poor collection weakens finances, repairs are delayed, infrastructure breaks down, audit findings return year after year and recovery plans produce too little visible change.

The Report Card separates financial reporting from delivery. A clean audit is important, but it does not prove that every tap works or every road is maintained. A disclaimer audit is a serious warning because leaders may lack reliable information for decisions. The full test looks at all five pillars together. The evidence shows that change is possible: eighteen municipalities are improving, sixteen are stable and sixteen are deteriorating. Provincial averages range from 72.8 in the Western Cape sample to 38.6 in the Free State sample.

The purpose of this Report Card is simple: to make municipal performance easier to understand and harder to hide. It recognises good work, identifies risk and shows where repair is needed. It helps residents, journalists, councillors and officials ask better questions before the next local government election. What is working? What is failing? Has the problem been fixed? Who is responsible for the next step? Municipal power is exercised in the public’s name. The public should see the evidence, compare results and demand practical improvement.

For more on this topic read: Local Government Report Card